Next round of free schools struggling to find sites

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The One in a Million free school in Bradford had funding pulled at the last minuteGabriel Szabo/Guzelian

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Janet East with her son JamesGabriel Szabo/Guzelian

Nicola WoolcockEducation Correspondent

Published at 12:01AM, October 11 2012

A Chinese-English bilingual school and one that puts debating at the heart of
the curriculum are among the next generation of “free” schools.

The Times has seen a list of free school bids, drawn up by parents,
teachers and community groups, that could open from 2014. Thirty potential
schools are working with the New Schools Network (NSN), which helps projects
to meet standards required by the Department for Education.

However, the independent charity says that finding sites is a major stumbling
block and it welcomed comments by Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, who
told the Conservative Party conference that

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Jan East’s kitchen is the unofficial campaign headquarters for parents fighting to save the One In A Million Free School in Bradford. The secondary school had filled only 30 of its 50 places and its funding was withdrawn by the Department for Education days before it was due to open. Her son James, 11, sobbed when told that he would not be going.

Mrs East, 50, said: "I cried for two days. Then I decided to fight." She has not been able to work because of James’s special needs: he is partially deaf and has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and hyper mobility syndrome.

The school would have been ideal for James, she said, because of its small class sizes and a curriculum that meant children keeping the same teacher. He will now go to a school with 1,800 children but "won’t cope with going from class to class in a normal secondary", she said. "He has little short-term memory. He won’t be able to remember the timetable and will get distracted or forget where he’s supposed to be going. If he goes into crisis mode, he runs."

The school, part of Bradford City Football Club’s grounds, sits opposite the stadium, bearing a 6ft high logo on the outside wall saying: "Brand new school for Bradford, open September 2012". Classrooms were almost finished and children from all walks of life and abilities, and all ethnic backgrounds, had enrolled from across the city..

Wayne Jacobs, the former Premier League footballer who co-founded the One In A Million charity, said: "It’s devastating for the parents and children. We worked really hard to open the school, we went through all the procedures. We provided evidence of demand. The facilities were secured and the funding agreement was in place.

"As the months ticked by we had to watch as some youngsters walked away because they were offered places at other schools." There is a chance that the school could open in 2013 but Mr Jacobs describes that as a "cold crumb of comfort, which doesn’t help the parents who wanted their children to start this year".

Jez Stockill was principal designate at the school. He had resigned as deputy head at another Bradford school. Now in his early 50s, his future career is uncertain.

"It’s unsettling. I feel staff and parents chose to come here on the back of my rhetoric and convictions, which made them get excited about the school," he said.

"It was a chance to do what lots of us came into the teaching profession to do, to have an impact on young people’s lives, with a different kind of curriculum, and a real passion for character and moral development."